Rosamond Skypark

The Rosamond Skypark Association

The Rosamond Skypark
is a privately-owned and operated residential skypark located in
Southern California's Antelope Valley (AKA "Aerospace Valley"). Our FAA
designator is L00 (Lima-Zero-Zero) and our airport is open for public use. This website is operated by the Rosamond Skypark Association as a service to our owner/members. We also provide various items of interest to pilots and the general public.

Don Alderson

Muldoon and
Joyce Mills were among the Skypark's first residents. His death
in September of 2001 was a loss not only to Joyce and the Skypark
family but to the world at large. What is written below is only a
pale whisper of his life.

Don
"Muldoon" Alderson

12/2/1932 - 9/10/2001

Don Alderson was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 2, 1932.
His parents were teacher/missionaries and Don's early memories were
of an idyllic time when Hawaii was still a quiet, simple place where
a barefoot boy could run with the wind.

Following Pearl Harbor the family moved to Los Angeles, where Don
spent his teenage years, attending Newberry Park Academy High
School. Like many boys of the period, Don worked at a local gas
station. In those days you could get a learner's permit at the age
of 13½ , in preparation for which he
purchased and rebuilt a Model A roadster. From that point onward he
always owned a Model A, sometimes two or three at a time.

After high school, Don attended La Sierra College in Riverside,
during which time he began his formal racing connection at the old
Santa Ana drag strip, now the Orange County airport. In 1951 he
transferred to Walla Walla College in Washington state to work
toward an engineering degree. During this period, Don and a friend
built up a T-bucket roadster, towed it from Washington state to
Santa Ana during Christmas vacation and ran it to a top speed of 109
mph. However, in 1952 the Korean War interrupted and Don found
himself in Korea, serving appropriately as NCOIC of a motor pool
operation. War is hell, but when he reminisced Don always preferred
to relate the inevitable wild and cocky things which accompany young
men at war.

Ending his two-year Army stint, Don returned to California and a
job at Schrillo Tool Engineering in Los Angeles. At Schrillo's he
was privileged to go through a very complete apprenticeship in
design and manufacturing of aircraft components and assemblies.
Rising to the position of Shop Foreman, Don built and oversaw
assembly of aircraft subsystems such as cabin pressurization units
for the DC-6, 7 and 8 aircraft.

In 1957, Don and his friend Milo Franklin determined to branch
out on their own and in November of that year formed "Milodon
Engineering, Inc". Initially, Milodon was primarily an aircraft and
missile job shop. However, automobiles and automobile racing were
always close to Don's heart, and gradually Milodon began to produce
a few items which went primarily into Don's own cars and engines.

Don was by then fully involved with Bonneville racing, 1/4 mile
drags and Dry Lake Bed racing. Don was an active member of the Gear
Grinders, a major club within the Southern California Timing
Association (SCTA). In 1956 Don drove his street roadster to a
record speed of 131 mph. When fellow racers inquired about the
source of a special part and received Don's reply "I made it", the
inevitable request was "next time you make one, make me two!".

This demand accelerated a drift at Milodon from aircraft
components to automotive product development. Quantities of "special
parts" grew from batches of three or four to dozens and finally to
thousands. In 1962 Don acquired sole ownership of the company, and
soon Milodon was a full time race engine part manufacturer. The
products grew from support items such as beefed-up main bearing
supports, oil systems, oil pans and the like to major products such
as 426-Chrysler and 350-Chevy style aluminum blocks manufactured
specifically for racing engines. Wins by Chris "Crazy Greek"
Karamesines and Don Garlits in Milodon-engined dragsters made the
company a byword. By 1985 Milodon had 42 employees and a product
line of some 900-plus items.

For Don, the '60s were the glory years of racing. In 1965, Don's
engines powered the Herda, Knapp and Milodon streamliner. Bob Herda
was the driver of the streamliner and in Don's estimation the best
aerodynamics guru in the automotive racing business. Running both
big-block 460's and smaller 299's allowed the car to compete in both
Class B and Class C. The streamliner rolled to a Bonneville record
on it's first outing. Over the next three years the car broke it's
own record 18 times, eight times in a single year. In 1967 the Ford
Autolite division contacted Don and asked if he would build up a
special SOHC engine to run in the streamliner in November of 1967 as
a special tribute to Henry Ford's record breaking runs at Daytona
Beach 40 years earlier. The deadline was met, and the streamliner's
final best speed of 357+ mph set that November was to stand as a
class record for an incredible 28 years.

While automotive racing was Don's first passion, his love of
speed quite naturally attracted him to a parallel involvement in the
world of aviation. Although he had started some flight training in
1951 and progressed to soloing in a J-3 Cub, he never received a
license. Then in the mid-1960s, an old buddy who was an ex-military
flight instructor seduced Don into purchasing a WW-II era T-6
trainer and Don resumed flight training, passing his private pilot
check-ride on October 14, 1966. Becoming unsatisfied with the speed
and performance of the 600-hp T-6, In May of 1969 he moved to an
800-hp T-28 which he flew until it suffered an unspecified "taxi
accident" at VNY on March 29, 1970. Not surprisingly, after a year's
rework during which he was "downgraded" to flying a Bonanza, the
T-28 reemerged with an upgraded 1200 HP engine (later boosted to
1425 & finally 1625-hp). The T-28 kept Don's need for performance at
bay for several years, but finally he moved up to every young boy's
testosterone-fuelled dream, a P-51 Mustang. Quite naturally, all
this interest and activity within the performance aviation field led
to supplying parts for many major air-racing names. Special
machining, gearbox mods and the like went into such record-setting
aircraft as Darryl Greenamyer's Bearcat & F-104 Starfighter, and Ed
Browning's highly modified P-51 Red Baron.

In addition to the ex-military heavy iron, Don also owned & flew
a string of more "normal" aircraft, such as Twin Beeches, a Baron
and several Bonanzas. An interest in T-34 trainers led eventually to
the purchase of two T-34's and connected Don with Earl Parks of
Parks Industries in Amarillo, TX, for whom Don made special castings
and parts used in Earl's restoration of T-34 aircraft from all over
the world. Don remained very active in the T-34 "community" until
declining health finally dictated otherwise.

In 1986 Don sold Milodon and moved to semi-retirement as one of
the original residents of the Rosamond Skypark north of Los Angeles.
Semi-retirement, in addition to flying the Bonanza and the T-34s,
meant the formation of Muldoon Engineering to manufacture and market
a limited line of automotive performance products and "special"
items. These items were marketed under the Muldoon Engineering name
and also as "no-name" and/or major-name branded products and were
well respected in the performance industry.

Don's contributions to motorsports and the automotive performance
industry have been honored numerous times by many organizations that
are household names in the field. The National Hot Rod Association
(NHRA) and the Special Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) have
both honored Don with awards at their conventions. Posthumously, Don
was selected for the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame by the Gold Coast
Roadster & Racing Club. Capping the list, a blue-ribbon selection
board has tapped Don for induction into the International Drag
Racing Hall of Fame, founded by racing great Don Garlits.

Don was a large man in both body and spirit, and he lived a life
to match. He described himself as a "horribly impulsive man".
Perhaps, but the impulse this writer saw was to live the best and
most rewarding life he could. And that ain't so bad.